What's Happening

By Sister Judy Byron, OP, Portfolio Advisory Board Member and 
Maxwell Homans, Shareholder Advocacy Associate for Mercy Investments

February 18, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Beginning in 2024, several prominent companies announced that they are ending or modifying their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs aimed at hiring and supporting a more diverse workforce and supplier base. These announcements followed recent legal decisions regarding affirmative action programs, anti-DEI campaign rhetoric in the recent election cycle, and a flurry of anti-DEI shareholder proposals at companies in recent proxy seasons. 

Ford Motor Company was among the first to announce changes in its DEI programs, citing an “external and legal environment related to political and social issues [that] continues to evolve.” The Portfolio Advisory Board joined other investors in filing a shareholder proposal requesting that the company disclose analysis that the company undertook before making changes to its DEI policies and practices.
 
Ford’s announced changes included no longer participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) survey on corporate practices related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) employees; not linking compensation to diversity goals; and changing the focus of employee resource groups. 

In a subsequent meeting with Ford, the company assured investors that its commitment to diversity and inclusion is unwavering. The company said it has not put out a public clarification of its position because it wants to avoid feeding the media narrative grouping it with DEI rollbacks, but it immediately reached out to its largest investors to inform them of its continued commitment to DEI. 

Speaking with Ford to hear firsthand why the changes were made and how it plans to continue fostering a working environment based on belonging and individual potential was helpful. However, we anticipate that the proposal will remain on the proxy ballot and hope that Ford will use the opportunity to explain its decision publicly.

Walmart announced in December that it will be rolling back some of its DEI initiatives and modifying its DEI language while continuing to encourage “a sense of belonging” for its employees, customers, and suppliers. PAB and other investors have engaged with Walmart for more than 30 years, including numerous dialogues and proposals that flagged the business and financial risks to Walmart associated with systemic racism, discrimination, and inequity as well as the significant benefits of advancing DEI. 

On January 15, the PAB and other Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) investors sent an Investor Statement to CEO Doug McMillon and issued a press release expressing our deep disappointment regarding Walmart’s recent announcement about its DEI commitments. Subsequently, investors met with Walmart about its DEI program changes and we plan to continue engaging the company on that issue.

Early executive orders from the new Trump Administration have fueled fears that companies could come under federal investigation for their DEI programs and policies, and more companies, such as Target, have recently announced changes in their programs. We anticipate that urging companies to continue to prioritize DEI will be a significant focus for our engagements with U.S. companies for some time to come.
 

January 17, 2025, Southfield, Michigan – Three Adrian Dominican Sisters participated last month in a meeting of the Gamaliel Nuns’ Caucus, a coalition of religious Catholic Sisters and lay community organizers working together to bring about “transformative justice” in society. 

Sisters Cheryl Liske, OP, Xiomara Méndez-Hernandez, OP, and Janice Brown, OP, participated in the afternoon session of the Nuns’ Caucus, held at the end of the Fifth Biennial Race and Power Summit. The summit drew affiliates and leaders of the Gamaliel Network, along with invited allies and partners, to the three-day event. The theme was “A Pivotal Moment in Time: Resistance, Persistence, Insistence.”

Founded in 1989, the Gamaliel Network trains community and faith leaders “in building political power and creating organizations that unite people of diverse faiths and races” in work for justice. The network is made up of 44 affiliates and state offices in seven states. 

Participating in the Nuns’ Caucus meeting were sisters and organizers who attended the Race and Power Summit and others who participated via Zoom.

Sister Theresa Keller, FSPA, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, opened the meeting by explaining that the Nuns’ Caucus began about two years ago with a letter of intent. In their work for justice, the Sisters intersect with community organizers represented by Gamaliel. This intersection led to the proposal for a more formal network of sisters and community organizers within Gamaliel.  

“Historically, many Catholic religious sisters came to this country to serve the many immigrant communities,” said Sister Cheryl, a community organizer who served Gamaliel as National Training Director and a senior trainer. “They supported the common good by building social infrastructure,” such as hospitals, schools, and universities. 

In spite of the good that Catholic sisters brought to the United States, Sister Cheryl admitted that in many places, sisters were “complicit in racism and segregation. We lament in regard to such things as not being significant voices,” she said.

Sister Cheryl pointed to NETWORK, a social justice lobby formed by Catholic sisters about 50 years ago to serve as a voice for people suffering from poverty or other forms of injustice. “We renew our efforts to support the common good,” she said. “Today’s sisters, rooted in the Gospel and ancient practices, persist with our call for transformative justice inside and outside the Church structures.”

Sister Xiomara, a native of the Dominican Republic and Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference, related her own experience of racism when she came to the United States to enter the Adrian Dominican Congregation. She expected the people of the United States to be good people because of her experience with the Adrian Dominican Sisters who ministered in her country. 

“I was privileged in my country because I was a light color,” she said, but she experienced the biases of some people in the United States. “I was feeling less and less and didn’t know why.” She learned that she was experiencing racism. 

Sister Xiomara educated herself on the biases in the United States and became involved in the Congregation’s efforts to root out racist attitudes. In its Toward Communion Circle created to work towards the Congregation’s 2016 Enactment on Racism and Diversity, “we wanted to undo racism among us to raise diversity,” she said. “We wrestled a lot, and some of the stories were painful.”

Sister Xiomara cited the efforts of the Revolutionary Love Project with its three practices: See no stranger; love others, but first tend to your own wounds and fears; and adapt the practice of a midwife: push for new life. The project was founded by Valarie Kaur, a civil rights leader, lawyer, educator, activist, and author.

“I refuse to see myself as a victim,” Sister Xiomara said. “I want to see all of us as a beautiful creation of God. I want to see myself as more than a survivor but a thriver.”

Sister Janice spoke of prayer as a basis for religious life. “Prayer is where we find our ground, where I open myself to a greater world,” she said. Contemplation “is a time to step aside and be with God. You stop and contemplate and just let that sink in … bringing you to a higher level of consciousness.”

Study is also an important part of the Dominican tradition and the tradition of other congregations as well, Sister Janice said. It involves understanding the world and discerning where God is and what God plans for us. 

Prayer and study bring us to spiritual activism, “the act of transforming oneself,” Sister Janice said. “Prayer is a breath of life that holds us as a community and as a unique child of God. It brings us back to the essence of who we are and whose we are.”   

The meeting concluded with a discussion on how participants were sustained by prayer and their mission, and on ways that community organizers and Sisters can work together and learn from one another. 
 

Caption for above feature photo: From left: Sister Cheryl Liske, OP, Sister Xiomara Méndez-Fernandez, OP, and Sister Janice Brown, OP.